Yeah, I think Max works great on its own. It's pretty common here. One of my cousin's have a son named Max, I go to school with a Max, and I used to go to school with a couple of other guys named Max.I love a lot of Max- names, so for I would go with Maximilian and then use Max as a nickname, mainly because I love both names and that way I can get to use both of the names. Have you considered Maxton? Is Maxim (this spelling) also too feminine ? What about Maksim?